Payments under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) which have been delayed due to issues in processing payments for the conservation of rare breeds action will now be paid quicker.

This follows changes being made by the Department of Agriculture including delaying the conservation of rare breeds payment for the 2023 scheme year until quarter two of 2025, with payment included as part of 2024 balancing payments.

Payments under the rare breeds action are paid retrospectively, with payments for 2023 paid in 2024 and payments for 2024 in 2025 etc, following the processing of stocking rate and birth registrations.

The Department’s ACRES section released a scheme circular to advisers on Thursday 13 December informing them of the change.

The circular stated: “The payment functionality to progress applications submitted via the rare breeds portal is still under development, which impacted on the making of the payments for that action as part of the 2024 advance payments.

"In order to enable the making of the 2024 advance payment to ACRES participants, as the 2024 advance payment would otherwise have been delayed solely by the rare breeds issue, it was decided to temporarily withdraw the conservation of rare breeds action from the affected ACRES contracts in order to allow the participant to be paid on the remaining ACRES approved actions.”

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that another payment run for ACRES will take place before the end of the year.

Submission of documents

The Department circular also addressed deadlines for submission of relevant rare breed action documents.

The deadline for submitting documents was initially set as 13 November 2024, but was extended to 31 December 2024 in response to issues encountered by participants in getting the required documentation.

This remains an issue and the Department circular stated that the Department will accept the submission of applications on the portal after this date.

It added that the conservation of rare breeds action will be reinstated to the ACRES contract within the next few weeks and it will then be possible to input the remaining required supporting documentation for this action.

The statement read: “Please be advised that, as payment for the conservation of rare breeds action in respect of 2023 is to be made as part of a participant’s ACRES balancing payment for 2024, the timely submission of the supporting document is necessary to enable that action to be included in the calculation of their balancing payment.

"It is therefore recommended that all required documentation be uploaded on the portal by the end of March 2025.”

Rare breeds

The breeds eligible under the conservation of rare breeds action in ACRES include the cattle breeds of Kerry, Dexter, Irish Maol (Irish Moiled) and Droimeann, the horse breeds Connemara pony, Irish draught and Kerry bog pony and the Galway Sheep breed and old Irish goat.